the odds are quite likely not. >> reporter: denise charbonnet says that balfanz's model was it focuses on attendance, behavior and course performance with the first goal being simply to get students to show up on time for class every day. >> not surprising kids that don't attend get in trouble and fail their courses, drop out and we found that kids were signaling early and often but schools weren't designed to pay attention to it and if they did pay attention they didn't have the resources to respond. >> reporter: balfanz says that many of the schools in his model needed additional resources as quickly as possible. and his research showed that it was critical for students to have relationships with adults inside the school that shifted constantly from nagging to nurturing. balfanz says that city year, which already had a national presence, was a natural partner for diplomas now. >> by having this corps member who is a near peer, who has just graduated college, knows your music is seen as being the captain to the whole classroom, getting attention from that person is seemed like, "wow,